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A few years ago when we looked
at printers we saw this

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experimental color laser printer.

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It cost about $100,000.

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Now you can buy a laser printer for $3,000.

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In fact impact and thermal printers
have also shrunk in size and in price.

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Today we take an updated look at
printer technology next on this

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edition of the Computer Chronicles.

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The Computer Chronicles is made possible
in part by grants from AFIPs, the

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American Federation of Information Processing
Societies, a non-profit federation

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of 11 national societies for computer
professionals. AFIPs, Leadership and

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Service in Computer and Information Technology.
Additional funding is provided by

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McGraw-Hill, publishers of BITE.

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BITE's detailed technical articles on new
hardware, software and languages cover

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the greatest in microcomputer
technology worldwide.

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BITE, the international standard.

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Welcome to the Computer Chronicles.
I'm Stuart Chafay and this is Gary Kildall.

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Gary I have this paperback book here
which looks like any other book you might

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see in a bookstore except this book was
made entirely on a Macintosh and on a

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laser printer and there's a big difference
between the kind of print we see here

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and what we're used to seeing from
printers a couple of years ago. Now Gary a

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couple of years ago we did a show on
printers and at that time you told me that

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progress in printer technology would be
very slow because printers depend a lot

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on mechanics and not on electronics.
Were you wrong? Well we're never getting

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over the fact that a printer is where that
electronic signal becomes ink on paper

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and that's a process that hasn't been
helped largely by microchip technology.

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However things like laser printers are
going to lead to I think that affordable

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high resolution printer but now we're
asking them to do high resolution color

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graphics as well so that just adds another
problem to it. Gary on today's program

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we're going to see the latest in laser
printers, in color printers. We'll see the

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new printers from IBM and we'll take a
look at software packages which help you

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get the most out of your printer.
First of all we're going to take a look at a

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company now that does all its publishing
in-house because it has a computer and a

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high-end printer. The effectiveness
of a document depends on the visual

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impact it makes on the reader.

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As a result most companies with in-house
publishing departments depend heavily on

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their graphic artists for attractive
publications. There are numerous drawbacks

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to this dependence like the obvious
typewriter look of the text and the tedious

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manual paste-up of drawings and diagrams.
But the rough edges of on-the-spot

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publishing are getting a lot smoother
with the help of new software and a great

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leap in printer technology. The flexibility
of a word processor has been extended

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to integrate graphics with print-like
text for some remarkable results.

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On this high resolution screen an operator
can choose from a large number of font

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sizes and styles and mix them with
extensive graphics to create an integrated

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package. What he sees on the screen matches
what comes out of the printer. Data

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-driven business charts, diagrams,
even external artwork and photos can be pasted

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up with aesthetic precision. While office
computers may have reduced the need for

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some paperwork, the demand for
computer-generated hard copy continues to grow.

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In 1983, two and a half billion pages of
computer printout were produced in the

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world. By 1989, that figure is expected
to grow to over four billion pages.

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As the gap between in-house and professional
publishing narrows, the quality of

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office documents will make it more and
more difficult to tell the difference

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between typewriter and typesetter.

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With us now is Bob Lambvik, regional sales
manager of Okey Data and next to Bob

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John Dickinson,
special projects editor with PC Magazine and

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John was the editor of the magazine's

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recent special edition on printers.

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Bob, let's turn to you and this Okey Mate
20 which is probably the extreme from

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what you were talking about Gary in the
good old days. This is probably one of

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the newest hottest things around and I
know it takes some time so could you fire

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up the Okey Mate 20 because we're going
to take a look at, will you tell us what

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that's going to print out? Well the the
Okey Mate 20 here is going to print out a

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color screen dump. The Okey Mate 20
is a one of the lower end price range

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printers, it's under 300 dollars and it
uses a thermal transfer technology. Now

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I'll quickly point out that that is not
thermal. A lot of people in this industry

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think of thermal printers which are the
technology that's been around for two or

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three or four years. This is a new
technology we're actually moving a waxed

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ribbon ink onto plain paper. You'll see
when we get the output in a few minutes

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it's glorious colors,
vibrant and really comes out nicely. Now Gary,

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sitting behind the Okey Mate is one of
the new IBM quiet writers and John you

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mentioned the fact that the dot matrix
isn't quite dot matrix and you've got

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quiet and you've gotten away from impact
problems. Could you fire that one up

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Gary? Let's listen to a quiet
writer and see how quiet it is.

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There it goes. Now John why don't you kind
of give us a description of the quiet

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writer while it's working there.
The quiet writer is similar to the Okey Mate in

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that it's a thermal transfer printer using
an electronic technology to thermally

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transfer an ink from a waxed base ribbon
onto the paper. It's a higher grade

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machine, naturally it costs more,
it's about 1400 dollars. It has higher

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resolution and its standard mode of
operation is in correspondence quality which

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the Okey Mate 20 can also do.
The newest version of the quiet writer also

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includes graphics which again is an Okey
Mate feature but the quiet writer does

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not have the color feature of the Okey Mate 20.
It's definitely an interesting

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thing to sit here in an impossible
scene two years ago. We have two matrix

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printers running at the same time and are
holding a conversation at just normal

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over the desk levels.

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We're not screaming at each other.
Now is the Daisy Wheel printer dead? You

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talked about well there's still a lot
I'm cranking away but we look at this

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technology and it seems to make the Daisy
Wheel a kind of dinosaur. I'm one of

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those people who just doesn't think
dinosaurs are going to go away that easily.

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If we're truly dead new brands would not
be coming out and new brands are coming

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out. New and less expensive printers are
coming, you're getting more for your

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money today and they're also getting to
be much faster. There are Daisy Wheel

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printers now that are capable of 50 and
60 characters per second on a throughput

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basis that was unheard of
a couple of years ago.

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They're still being made, they're still
selling well. The only difficulty you

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have with the Daisy Wheel printers is in
the new software such as your gem and

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other products like your social windows
which basically require a graphics based

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printer to operate correctly and that's
where if those software packages take off

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and really do a lot those printers are
in trouble. Okay now what are they going

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to suffer even with new printers that say
would be adaptable to windows or gem or

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the high resolution graphics are they
going to be you know high speed or are we

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going to be left with a situation like
this where all of our letter quality stuff

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is going to come out at this rate just
because it's graphics based? At the risk

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of sounding like a wise guy the answer
is yes because you're going to have a

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range of speeds and qualities just like
you do today. You're also going to have a

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range of compatibility standards which
will make some printers work better than

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others with those products and you're
going to have just as many choices and

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probably just as much confusion in terms
of what exactly to buy as you do today

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and we'll probably be doing the same
thing in two years at PC Magazine where

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we'll take another hundred printers or 120
or 200 whatever it turns out to be and

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work them with more of a graphics
orientation probably two years down the road

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than we do now. Bob there's one question
I have is how important is color in

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printing? I mean is it a novelty or is it
something that we're is really going to

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be an important part of the future generation?
Oh do we have color or is black

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and white in there? Well I think it's
it's fair to say that color is an up-and

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-coming technology and especially in printers.
Prior to let's say 1985 the biggest

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downfall in color graphics on a printer
was software compatibility. One of the

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ways that's been addressed on the Okemate
is the the customers purchase a generic

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printer and then they buy a personality
module which slides on the side of the

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printer. With the personality module comes
two discuts. One is a learn to print

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tutorial discet, the other is a color
screen print utility that's created this

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output. Let's take a look at the output
for a second while you've got it.

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The color screen print utility is
a device that lets you rotate, you

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can size the object to whatever aspect
ratio you're looking for, you can change

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the colors and that now is
included with the printer.

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So to summarize it anything you can
get on the screen you can output

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on the Okemate 20 very easily.

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John quickly you had that kind of critic
smile when Gary asked his question.

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What's the short answer to that question
from your view? It's a big if. A lot of

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people keep saying the color printers are
really important. I think the Okemate

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20 and its Ilka printers can prove it
because at the kind of price that they're

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charging for that printer
there's just no excuse not

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to have one as a second printer.

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So if that printer really takes off with
the kind of software they're providing

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and support they're providing for the IBM
PC for example then I think there's a

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good shot it's determining whether color
printing is that important or not. Okay

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gentlemen now in just a minute we're
going to see the newest laser printer

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from Yollet Packard so stay with us.

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Joining us now is Chuck Ulfers
the marketing manager for

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the printer division at Yollet Packard.

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Chuck we were just looking at one new
printer technology thermal transfer this is

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another new printer technology laser
printers what goes on inside a laser

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printer? Well actually Stuart the technology
of a laser printer is very similar

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to the technology that's
used in a photocopy machine.

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The image is actually transferred to a
photo conductive drum using a laser. The

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drums then rotated past a station that
applies a powdered plastic or a toner.

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That toner is then transferred to the paper
and actually melted or fused into the

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paper. Chuck can you get the printer
running here and just to answer a couple

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questions about things like speed the
cost of the machine the cost of operation

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things that so we can pair it with the
other printer. Sure the laser jet is an

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eight page per minute device it sells for $29.
95 it prints in either

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direction on the page it has the ability
to put a number of different fonts on a

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single page and what about the cost of
let's say per page copy? Per page cost is

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somewhere between five and seven cents.
Okay now this particular page right here

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has I notice has looks just very much like
a typeset page that seems to be one of

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the big advantages of the laser printer
over some of the others. That's correct

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laser printers today have a very high
resolution typically about 300 dots per

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inch and that gives us the ability to
do very nice artwork and graphics. The

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print that you see here actually has a
number of different sizes of font they

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have it has a graphic it has proportionally
spaced text that's one of the strong

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capabilities that the product is brought
into the office marketplace. One of the

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other abilities that it has is the ability
to do a form this one's a very popular

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one the 1040 form which is certainly
attractive in the accounting marketplace we

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also have the ability to do graphics
with this sort of a product. Chuck I've

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heard the name of the cannon engine quoted
in the context of laser printers what

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does can have to do with this whole
development? Well as I said earlier the

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technology is based on the same technology
as photocopy machines and so you will

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find that in most cases the photocopy
companies are the ones that have a early

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presence in the marketplace. Canon has
been particularly successful in that a

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number of machines in the marketplace
today are currently based on technology.

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Does this use the cannon engine then? This

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product uses the cannon engine that's right.

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What were some of the other typical laser
printers? Some of the other products

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that you may be familiar with the Apple
Laser Rider uses the cannon engine the

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QMS printer is based on the cannon engine
and there are a number of others in the

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marketplace. Chuck why would people want
to spend the three thousand dollars say

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to buy a laser printer what
are the main features that the

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user would look for in
buying something like this?

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Well interestingly enough our studies
show that the primary reason that people

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buy a product like this one is because
it's very quiet it has a very high quality

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output and it's very fast.

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We expect that over time the market
will evolve to a more sophisticated

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appreciation of the graphics capabilities
of these products but certainly in the

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office those are the reasons why people buy it.

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Now are we going to see a smaller version
of this thing for say home computers

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personal computers with less cost?
I'm sure you will see the technology continue

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to evolve downward both in cost and in size.
What time frame would that be? I

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would expect to see that continue
to move down continuously.

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We actually this is a second generation
of this product it's less than 18 months

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old so I think it'll move rather rapidly.
You know already now with obviously

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with output like this the laser printers
are radically changing the publishing

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business and the graphics business.
Our reporter Wendy Woods went out and took a

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look at a graphics house which has
nothing but PCs and laser printers.

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For centuries the pencil, the ruler and
the knife have been the major graphics

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tools until one year ago. This is the
first shop in the U.S. to exploit the

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Macintosh, laser writer and page maker
software by Aldis. TechArt of San

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Francisco does virtually all its type
setting from flyers to books by computer.

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The computer does the drudgery of paste
up and layout leaving humans to the more

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creative tasks. You still have to have an
eye for design I see these really more

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as tools. We're just using different tools
and they're a little faster and they

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really take out from my way of thinking
they really take out more the mundane

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aspects of traditional techniques but
you still have to pay attention to what

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you're doing and in fact we've had
artists here who feel that their their

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illustration capabilities have improved
from using the Mac. There are two other

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advantages to computerized type setting.
New employees can pick up graphic skills

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quickly meaning less training time for
the shops and the basic equipment which

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turns out camera ready galleys
and originals costs a fraction of

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conventional type setting gear.

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TechArt's success is inspiring people
to call every week to ask for help in

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starting their own computerized type
setting businesses. Of course who benefits

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by all of this? Customers.
Customers get their work a lot faster and a lot

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cheaper. TechArt priced the cost of an
eight and a half by 11 flyer and found

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that conventional shops charged five to
six times more than they did which speaks

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for itself.
For the Computer Chronicles I'm Wendy Woods.

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This looks like a real clear move from
old style character printers into

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something where you can
really use the full graphics

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capability. Yeah we're going to
get into some more of this Gary.

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Joining us now is Dr. John Warnock co-founder
and president of Adobe Systems Inc.

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the developers of something called
PostScript and back with this of course John

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Dickinson from PC Magazine. Gary.

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John it appears that if we take the idea
of just a pure ASCII printer and the

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common codes that have been used for line
feeds foreign fees and so forth that's

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really helped the whole industry evolve
is around some standards very simple

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standards. Now you've got a product that
does that same sort of thing for let's

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say high resolution graphics laser printer
is that right? That's right PostScript

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is actually the magic that sort of sits
inside of the laser printer and what it

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wants to do is it wants to take the
description of a printed page and that

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description includes text type setting
command kinds of things things to describe

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shapes photographs anything you can imagine
that can be printed on a page can be

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described in this language that really
describes what the page is looking like.

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Now this language wouldn't be one language
to say an end user would operate with

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but it would be say the program interface
level is that correct? That's correct

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PostScript is designed to be emitted
by application programs chart making

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programs graphics programs CAD CAM programs
and what the idea is is that you take

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this description of the page over the
communication wire to the printer that

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description is interpreted and actually
the marks that are on the paper are

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determined by that description.
Okay now as long as you get a let's say a wide

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variety of printer manufacturers that
adhere to that then you're in good shape as

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far as standards is that correct?
That's correct our our company sort of offers

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the product to a wide variety of printer
manufacturers and we're finding that

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this is being very well accepted because
it is a device independent description

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that it can allow many different resolution
devices to be driven from the same

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page description. John do you think this
is a good approach? Oh yes the character

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printers the standards that you mentioned
with the very simple ones were accepted

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for a long time but when it came to things
like in print enhancements bold facing

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and underlining and things like that
standards just didn't exist and it's only

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recently that we've seen a convergence
on three or four major standards. A

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product like Adobe has a chance of
standardizing lasers before it gets out of

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control because even now for as well
accepted as Adobe has been other vendors

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such as Hewlett Packard can and have
adopted other standards that are totally

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different from Adobe and I have a strange
sense that we'll go through this same

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incompatibility all over again.
Well the other thing that sort of appears to be

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the case is that this kind of postscript
interface could be used in a sense to

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maybe even a croat in the whole
typesetting industry is that really true?

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Absolutely postscript was designed with
the graphic arts industry in mind in

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other words it does do half tones it does
do full typefaces ligatures curling all

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the words that the typesetting industry
has been familiar with. John you've got

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some examples there I think of something
out of a laser printer and comparing it

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to what really comes out of a typesetter
show us that. Yes on the on the right

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here this is a form that was designed and
printed on the Apple laser writer and

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on the left hand side and this is excuse
me this is done at 300 spots to the inch

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on the right hand side this comes out of
a line a tronic typesetter at 1200 spots

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to the inch and this one is appropriate
for day to day use in the office this one

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is appropriate for high volume printing
print runs. And the major advantage of

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this now is that it's the same basic
application program that that produced this

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is the one that produced this.
The file that told the printer what to print on

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this page is identical to the file that
told the printer what to print on this

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page except they're in an entirely
different resolution. John will we ever see

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that kind of resolution coming out of a
laser printer? This is it go ahead. I

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think we both hope so I know a lot.

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This currently is what you can get for
three to five or six thousand dollars.

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Two or three years from now perhaps
you'd be able to get that at

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the same kind of economical price.

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Is there any competition for the standard
let's say for a printer interface do

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you have other other other software companies
say that are producing this kind of

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interface? Xerox is promoting a standard
description language called Interpress

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and as a matter of fact I was part of
the design team for Interpress. John I'm

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sorry you would have more? No. John Dixie
we have just about a minute left just

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quickly about some of the other cutting-edge
printer technologies we hear about

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magnetic LED LCD what's happening beyond
the laser printer? Well they're just at

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the back of the crest of the wave and
we're hoped they're up on the cutting edge

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of the wave by the end of the year we're
seeing array printers being announced

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and they should be out we were told of
course fourth quarter of this year we hope

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certainly first quarter of next year to
see some products from both the east and

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west coast companies and from both
the Japanese and American companies.

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Real quickly what's the advantage of an
array printer of the laser printer? Fewer

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moving parts the laser printer has the
rotating mirror and the array printers

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don't have such a device the smaller
number moving parts the less the cost is

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going to be. Okay well Gary maybe we'll
come back in two years again and take

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another look at printers who knows what
we'll see. Now how do we sum up all of

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this changing technology and printers we're
going to turn to our commentator Paul

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Schindler for his thoughts. To you or me
a printer to the computer nerd a hard

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copy output device if we were to look
inside we'd see gears and pulleys yes it's

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the printer the last mechanical outpost
in an increasingly digital and electronic

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world now don't get me wrong I'm as anxious
as the next person to move on to some

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completely electronic output device with
no moving parts that'll be as cheap and

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dependable as all the other components in
a computer system but until then being

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a basically mechanical creature like all
human beings I find it reassuring that

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no matter how fancy input gets or how
fast the computer calculates in the end

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there are relatively little use until they
can get it down on paper a mechanical

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process I'm reminded of the oft repeated
dictum of the office automation

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consulting business that the paperless
office is about as likely as the paperless

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bathroom few people realize that computers
create more not less paper in most

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offices in which they appear printed
matter and business graphics are

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increasingly vital to the function of
almost every business in America of course

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both can be done by hand rather than by
computer but you could also get across

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town with a horse and buggy would
you want to I wouldn't that's my

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opinion I'm Paul Schindler

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I'm Susan Chase sitting in for Stuart
Chafee in the random access file this week

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Sperry Corporation introduced another
PCAT clone the new Sperry PC IT is faster

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and offers more memory than the IBM
model it also runs UNIX allowing it to

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accommodate more users than the PCAT
Sperry's entry joins about a dozen and a

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00:23:45,000 --> 00:23:50,000
half other computer companies already
marketing PCAT lookalikes rumor has it that

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Hewlett Packard will also announce a
high-quality competitively priced PCAT clone

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shortly AT&T has unveiled a system that
will let people gain computerized stock

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information simply by speaking into their
telephones instead of typing into a

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computer or punching buttons on a touch-tone
phone a synthesized voice will ask a

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caller what information is desired
retrieve it and read it a Boston-based

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brokerage house will be the first company
to try out this service next month

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users will be able to attain quotations
at any time for some 6,000 stocks Lotus

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Development is also entering the stock
business Lotus introduced a new hardware

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and software package called Signal that
gets financial quotes through a radio

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00:24:30,001 --> 00:24:35,000
receiver and stores them in a personal
computer besides receiving stock quotes

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Signal alerts its users to key price
movements of a favorite stock with a loud

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beep hence the name Signal Lotus made news
with another event this week a serious

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flaw has been detected in the new symphony 1.
1 program leading Lotus to recall

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00:24:49,001 --> 00:24:53,001
all the boxes on the shelves Lotus
became aware of problems after users

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complained that some data disappeared
when they performed common tasks on the

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program's present owners of symphony will
receive a floppy disk next month that

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will enable them to correct the problem
and now for another colorful review

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00:25:06,000 --> 00:25:13,000
here's Paul Schindler fish bowls are
popular for one simple reason they

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provide hours of mindless entertainment
well this is pc color now you may say to

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00:25:18,001 --> 00:25:22,001
yourself just what i need an electronic
fishbowl well i'm not saying anyone's

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00:25:22,001 --> 00:25:26,001
going to rush out and buy a personal
computer just to run this program but

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whether you use your pc at work or at home
you've surely noticed you can't use it

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00:25:30,001 --> 00:25:35,000
all the time when you aren't using it it's
big empty eye stares at you just like

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00:25:35,000 --> 00:25:40,001
a dead tv set in between programs why not
flip on pc color i find it soothing and

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00:25:40,001 --> 00:25:44,001
interesting for you technical types it
stays in text mode increasing the number

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00:25:44,001 --> 00:25:49,001
of colors it can display you can make
the colors go faster or slower you can

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freeze them and you can change the color
scheme watch it while you're on the

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00:25:53,000 --> 00:25:57,001
phone there are two versions of pc color
if you don't mind copy protection it's

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yours for 35 if like me you prefer a
program you can use pay 44 either way pc

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00:26:04,000 --> 00:26:08,000
color is a bargain from a firmware in
drexel hill pennsylvania for the computer

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00:26:08,000 --> 00:26:13,001
chronicles i'm paul schindler neither
commodore nor atari will be among the

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00:26:13,001 --> 00:26:17,001
exhibitors at the consumer electronics
show in january though both are waging an

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00:26:17,001 --> 00:26:21,001
intense battle over consumer dollars and
neither plans to participate in the las

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00:26:21,001 --> 00:26:27,001
vegas show which attracts some 50 000 key
retailers many companies believe that

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00:26:27,001 --> 00:26:31,000
the advent of the computer would be the
end of the paper chase it seems corporate

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00:26:31,000 --> 00:26:35,001
america was wrong in fact the american
paper institute reports that the market

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00:26:35,001 --> 00:26:41,001
for office paper grew over five percent
annually from 1972 to 1984 when the move

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00:26:41,001 --> 00:26:45,001
to office automation was in full swing
some companies say the higher paper

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00:26:45,001 --> 00:26:49,001
consumption is the result of computers
making it easier to produce more originals

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00:26:49,001 --> 00:26:54,000
finally for those of you who are
frustrated with your apple 2 there's a new

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00:26:54,000 --> 00:26:59,000
product for you jeff raskin of information
appliance has created a plug-in board

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called swift card which simplifies
computer operations there's no startup

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00:27:03,001 --> 00:27:08,001
procedure no disk to load and no need for
separate word processing programs users

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00:27:08,001 --> 00:27:12,001
simply turn on their computers and begin
typing it may not take advantage of the

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00:27:12,001 --> 00:27:17,000
microprocessor but it certainly beats
using your 2e as a plant stand that's it

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00:27:17,000 --> 00:27:20,001
for this edition of the computer
chronicles tune in again next time

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00:27:20,001 --> 00:27:27,000
the computer chronicles is

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00:27:27,000 --> 00:27:32,000
made possible in part by grants from afips
the american federation of information

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00:27:32,000 --> 00:27:36,001
processing societies a non-profit
federation of 11 national societies for

362
00:27:36,001 --> 00:27:41,001
computer professionals afips leadership
and service in computer and information

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00:27:41,001 --> 00:27:47,001
technology additional funding is provided
by magraw hill publishers of bite bites

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00:27:47,001 --> 00:27:52,000
detailed technical articles on new
hardware software and languages cover the

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00:27:52,000 --> 00:27:57,001
latest in microcomputer technology
worldwide bite the international standard

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00:28:15,000 --> 00:28:29,001
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